Many organizations are making plans for actions related to the dire conditions, including starvation in Gaza on World Hunger Day, May 28.
I’ve been writing about the intentional starvation in Gaza and hunger strikes for global solidarity with Palestinian children, women and men there.
(See: https://unflinching.blog/?s=%27hunger+strike%27 )
We are witnessing, in real time, the deliberate starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare. Over two million Palestinians in Gaza are living in famine. Since March 2, 2025, Israel has blocked all humanitarian supplies and life-saving assistance – constituting the longest total siege Gaza has ever experienced.
UNICEF and OCHA have sounded the alarm: in Gaza, farmland has been destroyed, fishing waters are off-limits, bakeries and community kitchens are shutting down, food has run out, and people are fighting over water amid relentless bombardment. Children are “going to bed starving.” 92 percent of children under two and breastfeeding mothers are not receiving adequate nutrition. Hospitals have run out of blood, and those burned in explosions are left with no water to save them.
Unified Call to Confront Famine in Gaza: Launch the Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy Now. Human Rights Watch, May 19, 2025
We uplift a call from La Via Campesina and other global movement organizations to carry out global weeks of fasting between May 19 and 30, 2025, in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Since March 2, 2025, the Israeli government imposed a total blockade on Gaza engineering one of the worst famines in recent history. As a result, Gaza’s infrastructure is near total collapse, 93% of population faces acute food insecurity, bringing Gaza to IPC Phase 5 — extermination by starvation — the highest level of food insecurity, which indicates widespread death due to starvation, extremely critical acute malnutrition, and collapse of livelihood systems. Bread has disappeared from markets; Palestinians are dying from dehydration and untreated wounds; all bakeries and flour mills have been destroyed; fuel, water, electricity, and medical supplies remain blockaded. As a result of the deliberate actions carried out by the Israeli occupation of Palestine, over two million Palestinians in Gaza are living in famine.
In the current context in which an entire population is suffering from starvation, we call upon the people of the world to join us and carry out, on a date of your choice, a Global Day of Fasting in solidarity with Gaza between May 19th and 30th, 2025.
As part of these weeks of fasting, the US Food Sovereignty Alliance invites members and allies to collectively fast together on Sunday, May 25th. We also invite those who can to plant seeds, seedlings, or a tree on that day as a symbol of our solidarity with Palestine — especially with movements there that are saving lives, feeding communities, and defending the Earth.
Show your support by fasting in solidarity with the people of Gaza and donate the money not spent on food to our Palestine Emergency Fund, or to another organization working on the ground to fight the deliberate use by Israel of starvation as a tool of genocide and to provide food directly to people in Gaza.
Together, we can send a powerful message from every corner of the earth condemning the use by Israel and its accomplices of starvation as a weapon of war.
In addition, let’s all unite in street mobilizations, call-in campaigns, strikes, and boycotts until Israel’s assaults on the Palestinian people cease and Gaza borders are opened!
Beyond hunger strikes, other forms of solidarity and protest include:
- Artists Against Apartheid using their platforms and artistic practices to protest apartheid and amplify the Palestinian cause, challenging misinformation, and expressing solidarity with resistance.
- Israeli silent vigils holding images of dead Palestinian children.
- Protests in D.C. bearing the names of the dead and installing thousands of children’s shoes as a memorial.
- Calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
- Global condemnation from governments and international bodies, including calls for sanctions, arms embargoes, suspension of trade agreements, and referrals to the International Criminal Court.
- General protests worldwide, including on U.S. college campuses.
These solidarity actions underscore the perception, as presented in the sources, that the situation in Gaza, including the starvation crisis, is a deliberate and intentional act by Israel. Many sources frame these actions as responses to alleged war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and collective punishment.
Several instances of hunger strikes:
• California State University Students: Around two dozen students from San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State, and CSU Long Beach began a united hunger strike on May 5, 2025. Their protest is specifically against starvation in Gaza due to Israel’s aid blockade and aims to push the university system to divest from weapons manufacturers, among other goals1…. Students like Max Flynt and Marcus Bode cited the aid blockade and the university’s partnership with companies like Boeing, a major supplier to the Israel Defense Forces, as motivations. Professor Jaime Jackson noted the hunger strike’s symbolic ties to the realities of the blocking of humanitarian aid and ongoing starvation in Gaza. Students are managing the strike by consuming water, powder electrolytes, and sports fluid, while also experiencing physical effects like aching joints, muscle cramps, and lightheadedness. They see their actions as a necessary form of protest as previous methods like encampments have become effectively illegal. The university system stated it would not alter investment policies but would honor the right to protest19. Students view the use of funds for “war and genocide abroad” instead of student benefits as a key issue.
• Stanford University Students and Asian American Action Committee: Over a dozen students began a hunger strike, and members of the Stanford Asian American Action Committee (SAAAC) joined them, participating alongside several dozen students in Northern California. Their motivation is to end Stanford’s investment in what they describe as Israel’s genocide in Gaza, prompted by the university’s continued silence and refusal to engage with repeated calls for action through petitions, sit-ins, and encampments. They see the hunger strike as a powerful, non-violent resistance against imperialist oppression and state violence, drawing inspiration from historical figures like Mahatma Gandhi, and using their bodies as a means of protest when bureaucratic avenues are blocked. They view the university’s complicity in the “manufactured famine” in Gaza as a “moral injury”. They call on the community to demand negotiations with the strikers and support them through volunteering or donations.
• Global Fasting Weeks: La Via Campesina and other global movement organizations have called for global weeks of fasting between May 19 and May 30, 2025, in solidarity with the people of Palestine, specifically citing the Israeli blockade since March 2, 2025, which has engineered a severe famine. They highlight that 93% of the population faces acute food insecurity, bringing Gaza to IPC Phase 5 (catastrophe/starvation). The call includes a specific invitation for a Global Day of Fasting between these dates, with the US Food Sovereignty Alliance suggesting fasting on Sunday, May 25th. They encourage participants to donate money saved on food to organizations working on the ground in Gaza to fight starvation and provide food directly. They also call for broader actions such as street mobilizations, call-in campaigns, strikes, and boycotts until Israeli actions cease and Gaza’s borders are opened.
unflinching 